Unit information: Crime and corruption in contemporary Hispanic literature in 2017/18

Unit name	Crime and corruption in contemporary Hispanic literature
Unit code	HISP20097
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Brown
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

In recent years, crime and corruption have been enormous social and political issues in Mexico and Venezuela. While these are often understood only in terms of overarching statistics, this unit explores how fiction offers a more personal, individual viewpoint on these issues. Although Spain does not have the same reputation for crime and corruption, the popularity of crime fiction in Spain today, often with a political twist, suggests these are important issues for the Spanish reading public. We will compare different literary genres, from humour to detective fiction, asking how each example offers a different perspective, while also finding connections between genres and between countries.

This unit aims to:

• Develop further students’ knowledge and understanding of social and political issues in Mexico, Venezuela and Spain.
• Explore different narrative techniques for expressing this socio-political context in fiction, particularly how fiction offers a more personal, individual perspective on issues which we often think of in terms of statistics.
• Compare different literary genres in a Hispanic context, i.e. humour, detective fiction, noir, crónica.
• Develop students’ engagement with both close textual reading and broader critical analysis of secondary material.
• Students will be expected to read short novels and creative non-fiction texts in Spanish and read secondary criticism in both Spanish and English.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit, students will demonstrate:

1. An understanding of the key social and political issues in Mexico, Venezuela and Spain covered in the unit.

2. An understanding of different literary genres and how they are used to explore crime and corruption in Hispanic literature.

3. Ability to respond in a rigorous and analytical manner to the issues/debates raised by the unit and to interrogate these critically.

4. Ability to engage in close analysis of literary texts.

5. Critical awareness of theoretical scholarship in the field of study and ability to explain this in both oral and written form as appropriate to level I.

6. Ability to carry out independent research as appropriate to this level of study.

Teaching Information

1 x seminar per week

1 x lecture per week

Assessment Information

Group presentation (15 minutes) and individual write up max. 1000 words (30% - 15% group mark for presentation, 15% for individual write-up); extended essay max. 2500 (70%), both assessing ILOs 1-6.

Reading and References

• Los muertos indóciles: Necroescrituras y desapropiación, Cristina Garza Rivera (Tusquets, 2013)
• Fiesta en la madriguera, Juan Pablo Villalobos (Anagrama, 2010)
• La transmigración de los cuerpos, Yuri Herrera (Periferica, 2013)
• Muerte en el Guaire, Raquel Rivas Rojas (Ediciones B, 2016)
• Caracas Muerde, Héctor Torres (Puntocero, 2012)
• Un crimen imperfecto, Teresa Solana (Debolsillo, 2008)